


Warm Yellow Light

by DoreyG



Category: Historical RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, First Meetings, Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24309415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: "You're looking at me again."
Relationships: Anne Neville Queen of England/Richard III of England
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18
Collections: Writing Rainbow Make Up Round





	Warm Yellow Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [betony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/gifts).



She was so beautiful. More beautiful than the sun and moon combined, he might say if he was his oldest brother and so able to get such claptrap out without stuttering. He wasn’t sure if he was more enchanted by her thick brown hair piled atop her head, or her small smile that only came out when nobody was looking, or her obvious mastery of charms, or even…

"You're looking at me again."

Oh, _shit_. She'd actually noticed his, quite frankly, incredibly creepy behaviour.

"I'm sorry," he said, cursing himself when his voice stuttered as it came out. Edward seemed to find it easy with girls, had flocks around him all the time. Even George, despite being a bit of a prat, was perfectly able to flirt properly when push came to shove. But he, the youngest and shyest and least impressive of the York brothers, couldn't get out a sentence in front of his crush without attempting to swallow his own tongue. "I can stop, if you want. I will stop. Sorry."

"No! No, I didn't mean- it'd be a bit awkward to work together on this project if you never looked at me again, right?" There was a long moment of silence, and then Anne Neville - the girl that he'd admired from afar for years - sighed and reached out to lay a delicate hand on his arm. "That came out all wrong, didn't it? And now I've made things awkward."

He kept his eyes firmly on the desk, even as everything in him reeled at the touch of her hand on his arm. "I think I'm the one who's made things awkward, not you. "

"That is definitely not the case," Anne said, firmly but gently. "I shouldn't have tried to be casual, it never goes well when I am. What I meant to say was… You've been watching me for years, and I've noticed you watching me for years. And the reason that I've noticed you watching me is because I've been watching you also for years."

He blinked, hard. Was so genuinely startled that he forgot to be shy, for once, and looked up from the table and straight into her beautiful eyes "...That definitely wasn't casual."

She pinked, utterly adorably. "Sorry."

"No, I didn't mean for you to start apologising to me. I meant-" he bit his tongue for a moment, forced himself to calm down. He could do this. Of course he could do this, greater idiots than him had succeeded. "You've really been watching me for years?"

“Ever since you got sorted into Gryffindor,” she confessed slowly, still ever so pink but with a certain determined light in her eyes that he couldn’t help but admire. “And everybody was murmuring about it, wondering if you’d been put there only due to your brothers, but I saw the look in your eye as you sat there with the hat on your head and just knew. You’re one of the most Gryffindory people I’ve ever met.” 

“Wow,” he said, very sincerely, and blinked at her for a few moments more. Nobody had ever been this nice to him before, it was an entirely new experience “...Gryffindory?”

“Oh.” She went scarlet again, gave him a glare that entirely lacked venom. “Shut up.”

“I’d rather not, now that I’ve actually started talking,” he informed her, and watched with a certain sense of glee in his chest as she sighed and gave him a reluctant smile. “Look, maybe it’d help with the whole awkwardness thing if we actually did this properly. Um, introduced ourselves and that sort of thing.”

“As opposed to just blundering into a terribly awkward conversation, and hoping for the best?” Anne asked, and considered for only a second before giving a soft laugh and slowly extending her hand. “You may have a point. Hi, my name is Anne Neville. Fifth year Hufflepuff, prefect and aspiring head girl. Who might you be?”

“Hi,” he said, shoving away any lingering awkwardness, and took her small hand in his far more rough seeming one. “I’m Richard York. Fifth year Gryffindor, prefect and aspiring not to shove my brother George down the stairs at any point in the next two years. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“A pleasure to meet you too,” she said, and kept holding onto his hand gently. The expression on her face was focused and dreamy all at once. She stared at him like he was actually something worth seeing instead of a slightly annoying runt who should keep to the back of the pack. “Somehow, strangely enough, it seems almost as if we’ve met somewhere before.”

“Neville and York, what are you doing!” Professor Flitwick’s voice broke into their reverie, just as he was about to open his mouth to respond. He spotted the professor out of the corner of his eye, studying them disapprovingly as they sat holding hands in the middle of class instead of actually doing any work. “We’re supposed to be doing charms, not lollygagging around with silly romantic matters.”

“Oh. That’s alright, professor. I’ve already been charmed,” he said dreamily, and watched as Anne went entirely pink and burst into the most beautiful giggle that he’d ever seen.


End file.
